Why does God not correct wrong believers?

[marco]

We are told God is the best of fathers, never offering a stone instead of bread to a hungry son. If a father sees his child has a serious misunderstanding that might even lead him to do wrong, surely the father corrects the son?


Why then in our modern world do we have various groups adoring their God but saying contradictory things. If some are wrong why does God not issue a correction? Why do we have devout Muslims in their millions prostrating themselves towards Mecca, while Catholics look towards Rome and others to the clouds?


What can we conclude from God's seeming silence? Does he want division?

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

Reminds me of the old story of the man on the rooftop:

A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.

Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, "Jump in, I can save you."

The stranded fellow shouted back, "No, it's OK, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me."

So the rowboat went on.

Then a motorboat came by. "The fellow in the motorboat shouted, "Jump in, I can save you."

To this the stranded man said, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the motorboat went on.

Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, "Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety."

To this the stranded man again replied, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.

Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, "I had faith in you but you didn't save me, you let me drown. I don't understand why!"

To this God replied, "I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"

Sometimes we are drowned by our own unreasonable expectations.


JW

MATTHEW 28:19, 20

Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations ... teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.�

FURTHER READING Can we know the truth about God?
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/maga ... t_index]=7

[Tcg]

What can we conclude from God's seeming silence?

Seeming silence?

In any case, silence looks just like non-existence. There is no functional difference.

[William]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

What can we conclude from God's seeming silence? Does he want division?

You and I are divided on GODs gender, and likely many other things to do with ideas of GOD.

Is the division something which would cause a problem?
If so, can the cause be traced back to the source being GOD and GODs silence?

Have organised religions and their artifacts formed because GOD is silent and people want to hear from GOD and create mediums in which to give themselves that impression?

Is GOD to be realized in the silence?

I wrote a song about that many years ago.
The chorus;

[font=Comic Sans MS]Take me to the river 'though I shiver in the winter cold
Who will hold my head for me? Who will reach into my soul?
Who would dare to care enough to help tear away this wall?
Who but Silence answers me?
Who but Silence answers me!
And the Silence - The Silence say's it all![/font]

Therein is the connection and the relationship. The Silence is only silent in regard to others not being able to hear what it is I hear.

GOD chooses this manner in which to connect with the individual.

GOD does not 'correct wrong believers' because they choose to hear the words of others as a medium between them and GOD and in doing so, believe that this is the way to have relationship with GOD.
They are allowed to do so because there is no way in which to convince them otherwise, as they have chosen to believe that they are not to trust in the nature of direct communion with GOD...in the silence of their own being, in their own subjective reality.

This, in part, stems from the survival method that there is strength in numbers.

In order that a problem arises from that, the 'Golden Rule' must be placed to one side...

Essentially, that is the same as placing GOD to one side. And substituting GOD for medium.

You might refer to GOD in the masculine and I in the feminine, but as long as we are both applying the golden rule in regard to our interaction with one another, that difference becomes 'besides the point.'

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 4 by William]

That's a cute song and all, but silence says nothing. Nothing at all.

[marco]

Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations ... teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.�

I prefer: And behold I am with you, even to the consummation of the world, which I said as a little boy.


The nice thing about your tale is that the man, rejecting human aid, gets a chance to chat with God. Identification is all: if the hills made by a mole are an indication of God's presence, then where are the large letters that say so? Man is born myopic and God is no optician, it seems.


In your tale the man is meant to trust human communication and see that ordinary events are to be taken as divine messages. Is that really how things work from heaven to earth. If so, it is disappointingly ambiguous and flawed. Why would God use the same writing paper as the fraudster?

[marco]

What can we conclude from God's seeming silence?

Seeming silence?

In any case, silence looks just like non-existence. There is no functional difference.

I always leave the door unlocked, Tcg - just in case. I am also aware that my deafness might be the impediment, not God's good intentions. All the same, I would still expect God to be able to communicate with the deaf - and even restore their hearing. His son seems to have managed.

[Tcg]

What can we conclude from God's seeming silence?

Seeming silence?

In any case, silence looks just like non-existence. There is no functional difference.

I always leave the door unlocked, Tcg - just in case. I am also aware that my deafness might be the impediment, not God's good intentions. All the same, I would still expect God to be able to communicate with the deaf - and even restore their hearing. His son seems to have managed.

I do the same. For many years, I marked the unlocked door with a neon sign proclaiming, "Open for business". As you say, I may be the blind one, but I don't know how to build a brighter sign.

Jesus also gave sight to the blind, but has ignored my blindness. Either that or there is nothing to see.

[marco]

You and I are divided on GOD's gender, and likely many other things to do with ideas of GOD.

I don't think so, William. Like most folk I suppose I summon up my childhood vision of a larger-than-life being, impossibly capable of the impossible. I have really no identikit picture other than that.

I wrote a song about that many years ago.
The chorus;

[font=Comic Sans MS]Take me to the river 'though I shiver in the winter cold
Who will hold my head for me? Who will reach into my soul?
Who would dare to care enough to help tear away this wall?
Who but Silence answers me?
Who but Silence answers me!
And the Silence - The Silence say's it all![/font]

That's a nice reflection. We can make the silence into the silver moonlight of poets and see God's face amidst a crowd of stars. Walter de la Mare puts it:


Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;

This is a beautiful deification of the moon. I think religious people do the same for God.


But we deceive ourselves. God is best known, probably, in the touch of another person that tells us we are not solitary figures. The biblical God might as well wear a Hallowe'en mask; he has not been endowed with charity and love, though he is sarcastically called the God of love in much the same way as the terrible Furies were euphemistically called "the Pleasant Ones."

They are allowed to do so because there is no way in which to convince them otherwise,

I would have been a poor teacher if I had adopted this view with those students who could not see what I wanted them to see. There is always a way to penetrate reluctant minds. God should have no trouble. I don't believe that people WANT not to believe; I think there is no reason for them to believe. They are not denying what they know but not knowing what others claim to know.

You might refer to GOD in the masculine and I in the feminine, but as long as we are both applying the golden rule in regard to our interaction with one another, that difference becomes 'besides the point.'

I don't think this would be the basis of any difference between us. I have no reason to assign any gender to God other than to follow convention.

[marco]

I do the same. For many years, I marked the unlocked door with a neon sign proclaiming, "Open for business". As you say, I may be the blind one, but I don't know how to build a brighter sign.

Jesus also gave sight to the blind, but has ignored my blindness. Either that or there is nothing to see.

Well I should imagine that a faint glow would not be overlooked by the maker of Mercury. Perhaps the blind are given thought as compensation for their blindness. Reason seems to be a poor instrument for detecting the divine presence.